Martin Orkin

Martin Orkin (1942–2021). Critic, researcher and lecturer in English literature

Biography

He studied at the University of the Witwatersrand, where he became a was a lecturer in the Department of English (1975 to 1998). He then left for Israel, where he joined the staff of the University of Haifa, where he became the Head of the Department of Theatre in 2000.

He passed away in Israel in April 2021 at the age of 78.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

He wrote and lectured extensively on South African drama, publishing two widely acclaimed books based on his lectures, namely Shakespeare Against Apartheid (1987) and Drama and the South African State (1991). He also edited and wrote a useful introduction to At the Junction: Four Plays by the Junction Avenue Theatre Company (1995).

Since living abroad he has continued publishing works of seminal impact, including Postcolonial Shakespeares (conference papers from the conference Orkin had organised at the Univeristy of the Witwatersrand in 1996, co-edited with Ania Loomba, 2002), Local Shakespeares: Proximations and Power (2005), Race (2019)

Awards, etc.

In 1992 he was awarded a National Vita Award for theatre research.

Sources

http://research.haifa.ac.il/~theatre/orkin.html

Denise Newfield. 2021. "In Memoriam: Martin Orkin (1942–2021)" Shakespeare in Southern Africa

Denise Newfield. 2021. “Remembering Martin Orkin”, Shakespeare ZA, 11 May 2021[1]

NELM catalogue.

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